The trial used Nokia’s AirScale Massive MIMO radios and Nokia’s baseband software running on Dell PowerEdge XR8000 servers and Red Hat OpenShift.
It also utilised Nokia’s intelligent MantaRay Networks Management system for a consolidated network view and improved monitoring and management.
The trial, Nokia says, highlights the maturity of its anyRAN approach which is designed to give mobile operators and enterprises more flexibility in building networks.
Mark Atkinson, head of RAN at Nokia said: “Nokia’s collaborative anyRAN approach means that Communication Service Providers can deploy Open RAN with the server hardware and CaaS layer of their choice. Together with our ecosystem partners, we are committed to providing more choice and higher performance in Open RAN solutions to our customers than they will see from other RAN suppliers.”
Nokia is supporting Open Fronthaul features on top of its high-performance RAN software which ensures operators have performance consistency with their existing RAN.
The Finnish operator has already integrated with five open radio unit (O-RU) suppliers. The solution offers operators enhanced flexibility, efficiency and scalability in their mobile networks.
By integrating with Red Hat OpenShift, service providers also have the option to scale their 5G network footprint and quickly introduce new services.
Vodafone says it aims to have 30% of its masts based on Open RAN technology by 2030 in Europe and is already deploying the technology commercially.
This includes 2,500 Open RAN sites in the UK, the first large-scale deployment in Europe, as well as in Romania.
“Vodafone is dedicated to supporting the development and adoption of Open RAN worldwide by fostering a diverse ecosystem of partners and solutions,” said Santiago Tenorio, director of network architecture at Vodafone.
“This approach offers numerous benefits, including increased choice, enhanced energy efficiency, higher network capacity, and improved performance for customers.”
